1951 Lincoln Ruby Custom

You’d need a big pair and/or a pea brain to dare debut a candy-red custom at Sacramento’s Autorama, an historic show whose judges include the inventor of candy-apple paint. To be so ballsy in Joe Bailon’s backyard—a region that’s produced more customizing legends than anyplace else on earth (Bailon, the Barris boys, Bertolucci, Bagdasarian, DeRosa, Westergard, Winfield, and so on)—is to risk ridicule from the masters, in person. Though the survivors are in their 80s and 90s now, most still manage to make an event that’s been making and breaking customizers’ careers since 1950. So you can’t blame Autorama builders who choose a color—any color—other than candy-apple red.

2/15No, it’s not a Merc, but confusion is common—and unsurprising, considering Mercury-sourced items like ’54 headlights and a ’51 front bumper. The seamless Lincoln has been chopped 41⁄2 inches, nosed, decked, peaked, and shaved. Led by Troy Gaskins, Celebrity Kustoms’ crew rounded the hood corners, molded lake pipes into the rocker panels, fabricated stainless window moldings, and shaped driprails from 3⁄8-inch steel rod. Note how the new rail extends beyond both side windows and curves below the rear glass. To save time, Marcos Garcia—whom John D’Agostino regards as a master of candy apple—traveled from Lucky 7 Customs (Antioch) to mix and spray House of Kolor paint in Celebrity’s trick booth. Base coats of gold (overall) and silver (highlights) enhance Garcia’s candy-apple finish, which was baked twice by Celebrity’s in-house oven.

3/15From this angle, a stock bumper is the only clue to this custom’s Lincoln origins. The Merc effect is enhanced by the frenched Mercury taillights (’54) and rear window (’51). Celebrity flared the skirts to match the front fenders’ edges. Dan’s Auto Glass (Concord) and Tri-Valley Auto Glass (Pleasanton) share credit for the custom windows. All chrome parts were polished and dipped at Sherm’s Custom Plating (Sacramento).

Less than two months before the show’s 63rd edition (covered in Roddin’ at Random, pages 10–14), Mike Garner and this 1951 Lincoln were stuck on the side of the road. Car-show glory was the last thing on Mike’s mind. He’d known that this old custom, chopped and briefly shown in the mid-’60s, had been wrecked repeatedly, improperly repaired, and parked for years on end, if not decades. “A buddy wanted to unload the car, and I figured I’d just drive it ’til I could flip it,” he explains. “The roofline was all right, and the drivetrain was good. Everything else needed fixing.” Some butcher had even yanked a fender from a Mercury and tweaked it to fit the big sister’s hood, more or less. The latch was badly misaligned. Mike found out the hard way: “On my way home from picking up the car, the hood flew open on the freeway. It folded back onto the roof, crushed the cowl, crunched the firewall, messed up the fenders.”

Ironically, that unfortunate Lincoln-Mercury sheetmetal mismatch in early January set off a chain of events that would send a rebuilt Ruby to Sacramento in mid-February. In the steamy heap of bent steel and Bondo, John D’Agostino, Mike’s pal and 10-time hall of famer, saw an opportunity to supercharge the launch of their joint venture, Celebrity Kustoms (CelebrityKustoms.com; 209/832-3320). “Thirty-five days before the Sacramento show, Mike said, ‘Since we’ve got to fix the doggone thing, we might as well go for it,’” John recalls. “We knew we had the talent and equipment in-house to build a complete custom. Without that control, it wouldn’t have been possible to do one in five weeks.”

Yes, some compromises were inevitably accepted in a ’round-the-clock thrash that consumed more than 1,000 man-hours. Mike, a lifelong metal bender and ironworker’s son, is anxious to modify the Mustang II front suspension he inherited and swap in a bench seat. John also has some minor tweaks in mind, once fan interest subsides. That teardown may have to wait a while; their Lincoln’s trophy-winning debut points to sustained popularity and touring. In Sacramento, West Coast Kustoms bestowed its Outstanding Nostalgia honor onto the five-week wonder. That ballsy color call in Mr. Bailon’s own backyard didn’t hurt, either. Ruby’s sweet candy coating helped earn the coveted Joe Bailon award, an Autorama trophy handcrafted and personally presented by the 90-year-old pioneer.

Celebrity Treatment

12/15Ruby, the first project completed by Celebrity Kustoms, sleeps in fine company. You may recognize the Caribbean, the ’56 Packard that John D’Agostino reluctantly sold to his old buddy and new business partner, Mike Garner, “after eight years of pestering.” Both men are recent retirees: John after 34 years (“to the day!”) with U.S. Steel; Mike from American Truck & Trailer Body Co., a manufacturing firm he founded in 1977 and handed off to his three sons last year. Each was seeking a new challenge, preferably involving custom cars. After Mike (below, left) offered to share an existing Tracy, California, body shop and showroom, Celebrity Kustoms had a home.

13/15This northern California office will oversee the global network of customizing franchises that D’Agostino has been organizing since his 2009 retirement. In Italy, he advises and designs projects for the Ittoico Bros. In Australia, he works closely with brothers Glen and Rodney D’Agostino (distant cousins he never knew he had). John says he’s close to placing additional Celebrity Kustoms branches with established customizers in Southern California and Finland.

14/15Meanwhile, the Tracy facility will be busy building no fewer than three new customs by January to coincide with John’s selection as 2014 Builder of the Year for both the Grand National Roadster Show and Sacramento Autorama.

15/15Among the many magazine covers, feature articles, and trophies decorating his new office, we asked about a framed memento from the TWA, an unfamiliar organization. Laughing out loud, he explained that the mythical Trophy Whores of America was a car club whose members surprised him on stage with a plaque and matching jacket during a Grand National trophy presentation in the late ’80s. John D’Agostino cleaned up at Oakland that year, as usual.